Worryingly children in the UK today are at much higher risks of developing life-long health issues due to lifestyle choices. In a nutshell, children aren’t moving around enough, they are eating too much sugar in their diets and being sedentary for prolonged periods.

UK Chief Medical Officers have produced physical activity guidelines for children and young people. They recommend that children and young people aged between 5 and 18 years should do at least 60 minutes of physical activity every day, (spread throughout the day). That is exercise that makes you breathe faster and feel warmer.

Despite these recommendations a large percentage of children are simply not being physical enough. In 2015 Public Health England published a Health Survey which detailed that of children aged between 5 and 15 only 23% of boys and 20% of girls actually met the recommendations outlined. Overall this amounts to two in ten children meeting the government recommendations.

There are numerous contributing factors including environment, socio economic factors, culture and traffic, but overall statistically the number of children reaching the government recommendations are surprisingly low whatever the reason.

As well as not moving enough children are also consuming too many calories, with sugar being the main culprit. Recently the government introduced ‘Obesity: A plan for action’ which outlines a multi-pronged approach to tackling the issue and intends to halve the number of obese children by 2030.

‘Today nearly a third of children aged 2 to 15 are overweight or obese and younger generations are becoming obese at earlier ages and staying obese for longer. Reducing obesity levels will save lives as obesity doubles the risk of dying prematurely. Obese adults are seven times more likely to become a type 2 diabetic than adults of a healthy weight which may cause blindness or limb amputation. And not only are obese people more likely to get physical health conditions like heart disease, they are also more likely to be living with conditions like depression.’

Steve Brine, Public Health Minister said at the launch of the report that:

“One in three children are now overweight or obese by the time they leave primary school. Over consumption, combined with reduced activity, is having a catastrophic effect on our children’s health. As both a parent and minister, I am committed to driving today’s pledge of halving obesity over the next twelve years with bold new action.”

The plan funded by the soft drinks tax levy has many target areas including, food industry and advertising but one of the vital drivers of this plan will be schools and colleges. It encourages schools to adopt methods to educate and support children towards healthier lifestyles and choices. The funding for schools will mainly come through sports premium funding to support schools in establishing programme and initiative to implement change.

“In England, the revenue from the levy will be invested in programmes to reduce obesity and encourage physical activity and balanced diets for school age children. This includes doubling the Primary PE and Sport Premium and putting a further £10 million a year into school healthy breakfast clubs to give more children a healthier start to their day.” “Given the considerable new funding that the soft drinks industry levy will make available for school sports, the Government is keen that schools are supported as much as possible in how they spend the available funds for maximum impact.” Children Obesity: A plan for Action January 2017

Funding is coming via the Healthy Pupils Capital Fund (HPCF) and is intended to improve children’s and young people’s physical and mental health by improving and increasing availability to facilities for physical activity, healthy eating, mental health and well-being and medical conditions. The guidance outlines that direct allocations for HPCF will be made to bodies responsible for individual institutions. and will be in addition to their normal SCA.

In establishing a change towards getting children to more physically active schools have increased opportunities for children to engage in sport activities during the day such as running a mile, wake and shake sessions, or setting up sports clubs like football or athletics during the breaks or after school. Although these programmes have a proven track record and established quantifiable results they are mainly too selective in their approach and not inclusive enough particularly to the children they need to target.

In a bid to develop a more inclusive approach schools have been using the fund to invest in interventions within the school playground to enhance children’s play at lunchtimes and break times which is successfully encouraging children to move more. There is a growing body of evidence that shows making interventions within school playgrounds can contribute a wealth of benefits for children’s physical, social and emotional well-being:

“There is good evidence that making changes to school playgrounds leads to an increase in children’s levels of physical activity. Various forms of intervention have been shown to give this outcome, including changes to marking, the addition of play equipment, making available games equipment (such as bats and balls) and the introduction of loose materials such as scrap and recycled office equipment. Some studies suggest that children are more physically active during free play than during sport or PE lessons.” The Play Return, T Gill 2014

“Examining the effects of this school playground intervention over a school year suggested that the introduction of movable/recycled materials can have a significant, positive long-term intervention effect on children’s Physical Activity. The implications from this simple, low-cost intervention provide impetus for schools to consider introducing the concept of a movable/recycled materials intervention on a wider scale within primary school settings.” BMC Public Health 2014

In a recent interview with the Observer, Anne Longfield the children’s commissioner said radical measures were needed to restore the importance of play, such as overhauling play areas and parks, and encouraging GP’s to recommend “play on prescription”. She pointed to evidence showing that cardiovascular health and obesity levels deteriorate over the summer break as children stay indoors on computers and phones. Longfield called for the funds raised by the “governments sugar tax levy ” to be used to ensure attractive play schemes were located in the right areas and gave children and parents a safe, exciting and affordable facility. Guardian 2018

The PlayPod project investigated augmenting outdoor play in schools. It provided primary schools with a container, or ‘Pod’, full of loose parts, (scrap materials), and explored changes to the human environment, with the aim of stimulating, facilitating and enhancing children’s play. The results of this project were extraordinary and exceeded expectations in several ways. The inescapable conclusion is that given a conducive environment, both human and physical, the capacity and ability of children to play is witnessed as inexhaustible, and that the play itself, if left to the children, is similarly as varied as their imaginations and is therefore unending. Play Pods in Schools An independent evaluation M. Armitage 2010

We know that through play children understand each other and make sense of the world around them. Children learn so much from play; it teaches them social skills such as sharing, taking turns, self-discipline and tolerance of others. Children’s lives are improved by playing; it helps them learn and develop as individuals. Children enjoy playing because there is no ‘right or wrong way’, they can use their imagination to develop games and interact with each other without any adult help. They need opportunities for unstructured play, as over programming can spoil its true benefits. Play really is the answer, even if we knew it all along!

‘Providing for children and young people’s play is one of the most important things we can do to improve and protect their physical, mental, social and emotional health and wellbeing. A body of evidence recognises playing as an essential part of every child’s development and providing opportunities for play that are available and accessible contributes to better health outcomes for children and young people.’ Dr Ruth Hussey OBE, Chief Medical Officer (CMO) for Wales

Scrapstore Play Services can advise and support schools with developing play spaces. They have been supporting schools and early years settings for the past ten years through the delivery of play training, research and consultancy, advocating and supporting the development of play. For more information please call 0117 9143002

Yesterday we helped Fonthill Primary Academy celebrate being the first school to have a Scrapstore PlayPod for ten years. The occasion was marked most importantly by all the children decorating and then playing with their PlayPod.

Mrs Absalom then delivered an assembly where the children presented a Beautiful Scrap Cake which they had been working on and displayed their own Scrap Cakes as part of a competition. We had the very difficult job of picking 5 winners, pictured here, but would like to say a big WELL DONE to all those who took part for their amazing creations.

The Scrapstore also presented the school a certificate to say a BIG thank you and well done for being the first ever Scrapstore PlayPod being 10 years old. We are now looking forward to it being 20! The celebrations concluded quite sensibly by eating specailly made PlayPod Splat cakes. Yum.

The Scrapstore PlayPod research project started back in 2007; investigating augmenting outdoor play in schools. It provided primary schools with a container, or ‘Pod’, full of loose parts, (scrap materials), and explored changes to the human environment, with the aim of stimulating, facilitating and enhancing children’s play. In 2009 at the end of the research, the schools were so happy with the results they couldn’t help but let other schools know about it and suddenly a lot of schools were phoning us to ask how much a PlayPod was and if they could buy one! The demand was such that a twelve month business plan was put together so that the other local schools could benefits from this too. Scrapstore PlayPods was born: A process that works with the entire school community to change both the human and physical play environments; transforming play at lunchtimes. The transition from research to service and product delivery was a gradual and tentative one, but ever since this date the loose parts still never fail to create delight and enjoyment for the children who play with them.

From modest beginnings Scrapstore PlayPods has grown bigger than anyone expected and is having a major impact on children and schools across the whole of the UK and beyond! Since 2007 we have now worked with over 353 primary schools and early years settings ranging from Cornwall to the Orkney Islands, installing Scrapstore PlayPods, enabling 95,536 children access to loose parts play and quality playtime experiences.

Loose parts are the flexible elements within a play environment. They are the fuel which feeds the fire of children’s imaginations and playful intentions. The greater the diversity of loose parts offered to children, the greater the range of play interactions. These interactions enable open ended exploration through play leading to learning by doing.

The Scrapstore PlayPod is underpinned by the theory of loose parts which states that:

“In any given environment both the degree of inventiveness and creativity, and the possibility of discovery, are directly proportional to the number and kind of variables in it”

Here is the whole paper: Nicholson, S. (1971) How Not to Cheat Children:

On a dark and stormy afternoon in 2013 Jean Marc and Emma left France behind and flew into the Bristol mist at Children’s Scrapstore on a fact finding mission….. They wanted to understand more about the process of introducing loose part play into primary schools and wanted to spend a week observing and questioning us to learn more about the idea of replicating Scrapstore PlayPods back home.

It so happened I was training some playworkers that Monday evening so we all headed over together to the training venue discussing on the way. Both Jean Marc and Emma spoke good English but I wasn’t too sure how much they would get from this observation…. I do tend to get a bit over excited when I’m training, jump around a lot, and use a lot of anecdotes and stories to support concepts and theories, which may get lost in translation, I feared. On the way back I asked them how they found it. Emma simply said: “you speak very quickly”

Over the course of the week they worked tirelessly with our team…. observing Scrapstore PlayPods in action, training sessions in schools and asked a lot of questions about virtually everything loose part related. Initially it felt strange to be “watched on the job” for a week but as we waved them off on Friday we had grown accustomed to it enjoying the process. We all wondered what would come of this trip and whether we would see them ever again?

We didn't have to wait long! Incredibly within 6 months Jean Marc and Emma had not only formed a association called Jouer Pour Vivre but had successfully crowd funded for a pilot of Boite a Jouer (aka PlayPods) in two primary schools, one in Die, Emma's home town and the other in Paris in a school called Virtruve. The videos below show a computer generated idea of a Boite a Jouer and different people from Vitruve discussing what impact the Boite a Jouer has had on their school.

May 2015: Erasmus Partners at First Transnational meeting at Children’s Scrapstore Bristol

Scrapstore Play Services involvement was mainly based at the beginning of the project. To begin with we visited all the potential sites identified for the pilots of the loose parts. In France this involved visiting two primary schools and a leisure centre (after school provision), In Spain this consisted of one nursery to measure the play value. The process involves assessing school playgrounds adapting existing assessment models that enables schools to make considered choices about the development of their school grounds. After our site visits we created a baseline report: Diagnosis of Play Settings

Once sites had been agreed and we had supported with the collection and suitability of the loose parts we then hosted a five day training event in Paris focussing on concepts and theories for supporting play and playwork. This was interesting as the term playwork or playworker doesn’t really exist in Spain or France so it was like teaching an additional new language on top of the three languages already being spoken! It contained similar elements of the training for lunchtime staff we deliver in the UK, which the partners all found useful for the development of the project and supporting the notion of playwork in France and Spain.

October 2015: Dan Rees-Jones delivering training on Risk Benefit Assessment within a public park shortly before being properly ‘told off’ by The Guardian of the Park for introducing loose parts!

In May 2016 after all the necessary planning, gathering of loose parts, training and shed building the PlayPods or loose parts sheds opened in the respective schools and nursery. We went to visit Ecole Wurtz (a primary school for 250 children ) in Paris twice after Boite a Jouer opened. Even though I have been opening PlayPods for the last seven years I wasn’t quite sure what to expect but on arrival to the playground, I may as well have been in the UK ….it looked like a PlayPod, sounded like a PlayPod and even smelled like PlayPod!

I felt strangely proud at this moment on the playground…. the notion of a simple idea being replicated so seamlessly in another place and context. Even though I couldn’t take credit for the work…. Just watching the chaotic joy and noise that loose parts was bringing to this school was brilliant! The children loved it and even the staff loved it! Valerie the lead animateur for came up to us and said.

“We used to dread opening the Boite a Jouer but now we dread not opening it!”

It was fascinating and reassuring to see how the project had so many similarities and successes to the English model. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the partners for their contributions and success in delivering this exciting project and hope that these positive early steps will set the foundations for more children to experience high quality play opportunities in schools across Europe. Well done all!

The final report looks at the findings from the synthesis from both countries and makes for an interesting read: Findings Report

This research report is a scientific summary of the implementation of the PlayPod in three sites, two in France (a primary school in Paris and a Leisure centre in the suburb of Paris) on in Spain (an infant school for students under the age of 3 years in the town of Manresa, Barcelona).

Now I have always loved a tricky challenge so I jumped at the opportunity to apply for the job PlayPods for Primary Schools Project Manager which seemed right up my street and a perfect move for me back in 2007.

Ten years later on and still in the same job…. I find myself sitting in an airport reflecting on the exciting times we’ve had along the way, the challenges we’ve faced as well as the legacy of loose parts play in schools the past ten years has created.

The initial action research project brief was to; Investigate the benefits of improving outdoor play environments in primary schools for the purpose of supporting children’s development, learning and play experiences. Two things bothered me about this:

Firstly how were we going to get schools in a position to sustain loose parts play on a daily basis? And what was going to make this project different to all the other playground improvements?

The project comprised of three 12 weeks phases: Firstly researching and baselining the play behaviours, then installing a PlayPod to be open at lunchtimes and then finally the removal of it and assessing the post play behaviours. An evaluation report is available detailing the results.

I needn’t have worried though.... During the research, every time we opened a PlayPod the children absolutely loved it, accidents went down significantly, lunchtime staff were significantly more playful and everyone involved couldn’t help but smile at the spectacle that the loose parts created! I will never forget the day in one school playground where we had recently removed the PlayPod a child came up to me in floods of tears, clearly quite distressed and just about managed to say……

“Someone’s Stolen our PlayPod!”

Although this was quite heart wrenching to deal with I would like to reassure the reader we that we didn’t leave a trail of unhappy children in our wake. All but one of the schools involved in the project reinstated their PlayPods once the research period was finished as they couldn’t go back to how it was before.

It wasn’t all plain sailing though back in the early days though …. The logistics of installing and removing shipping containers in and out of school playgrounds with a crane had its ups and downs as you can imagine. Indeed I can vividly remember a freezing cold day in December in 2007 where somewhere on Avonmouth Industrial Estate, dressed slightly inappropriately I had to wash three shipping containers with a colleague, inside and out using only cold water. By the end of the day, we had not even finished cleaning the outside of one container…. We were freezing cold and ever so slightly broken by the experience….. On a positive note though the colleague I was working with, ended up being my best woman at my wedding four years later!

A year into the project, I was sitting in the office one morning reflecting; everything was ticking along nicely, the research was underway and the early results indicated the loose parts was having a huge impact on the quality of the play experiences for the children in the pilot schools…. Then the phone rang. It was a head teacher I knew from a local school and he wanted to buy a PlayPod. I politely refused saying this was a research project and we weren’t in a position in any way shape or form to start selling them. He said:

“Kirsty if you don’t sell us one then we are going to it by ourselves, but it won’t be as good, so please come and help us!” Marcus John 2007

How could I refuse?? This was the moment I knew that this project was going to something else, something bigger than the proposed research and a real confidence booster for me at this point.

The results of this project and “random sale” were extraordinary and exceeded expectations in several ways, transforming the play at lunchtimes. Common observations included a huge reduction in accidents and incidents, evidence of children self-managing risks, and children working together and collaborating across ages and genders, to mention a few. The findings can be seen in this short video:

One of the pilot schools ‘Severn Beach’ were initially reluctant to the change the Scrapstore PlayPod was going to bring but the responses from the staff, children and community has been phenomenal.

“I thought it would be really hard to sell this scheme to the staff but they absolutely love it” Jackie Daffon 2007

Ten years on the lunchtime staff and children still absolutely love their PlayPod and use it every day without fail. The lunchtime staff take the scrap home to wash and dry it, they even sewed the ears and other body parts back on cuddly toys. The school has also developed the playground by building special platforms that accommodate and extend building with loose parts and in the summer holidays children have been observed in their front gardens playing with their own loose parts!

In 2009 at the end of the research, the schools were so happy with the results they couldn’t help but let other schools know about it and suddenly a lot of schools were phoning us to ask how much a PlayPod was and if they could buy one! The demand was such that a twelve month business plan was put together so that the other local schools could benefits from this too. Scrapstore PlayPods was born: A process that works with the entire school community to change both the human and physical play environments; transforming play at lunchtimes. The transition from research to service and product delivery was a gradual and tentative one, but ever since this date the loose parts still never fail to create delight and enjoyment for the children who play with them.

Although we mainly operate within the UK, we have supported and shared skills with different organisations introducing loose parts play into schools in Australia and North Carolina. In May this year we also became a key partner on an Erasmus + Knowledge Transfer Partnership piloting Scrapstore PlayPods in France and Spain.

In May this year we went to visit the Boite a Jouer aka PlayPod in Ecole Wurtz, a primary school for 250 children in Paris twice after opened.

Even though I have been opening PlayPods for the last seven years I wasn’t quite sure what to expect but on arrival to the playground, I may as well have been in the UK ….it looked like a PlayPod, sounded like a PlayPod and even smelled like PlayPod!

I felt strangely proud at this moment …. the notion of a simple idea being replicated so seamlessly in another place and context. Just watching the chaotic joy and noise that loose parts was bringing to this school was brilliant! The children loved it and even the staff loved it! Valerie the lead animateur for came up to us and said which really sealed the deal:

“We used to dread opening the Boite a Jouer but now we dread not opening it!

It was fascinating and reassuring to see how the project had so many similarities and successes to the English model. Indeed Jouer Pour Vivre have won a government contract to deliver no less than ten Boites a Jouer in Paris over the next two years!

From modest beginnings Scrapstore PlayPods has grown bigger than anyone expected and is having a major impact on children and schools across the whole of the UK and beyond! Since 2007 we have now worked with over 307 primary schools and early years settings ranging from Cornwall to the Orkney Islands, installing Scrapstore PlayPods, enabling 73,536 children access to loose parts play and quality playtime experiences. I’m not quite sure what the next few years will bring to loose parts play ….but if the last few are anything to go by its definitely going places! I board the aeroplane feeling excited…..

If you are interested in finding out more about Scrapstore PlayPods please contact Scrapstore Play Services or phone 0117 914 3002

The Scrapstore PlayPod project investigated augmenting outdoor play in schools. It provided primary schools with a container, or ‘Pod’, full of loose parts , (scrap materials), and explored changes to the human environment, with the aim of stimulating, facilitating and enhancing children’s play.

The school lunch time is an important part of the day occupying as much time as key curriculum subjects - “Breaks can occupy up to 25% of the day, which is almost the same amount of time as that given to language or maths”. Blatchford (1994).

Loose parts are the flexible elements within a play environment. They are the fuel which feeds the fire of children’s imaginations and playful intentions. The greater the diversity of loose parts offered to children, the greater the range of play interactions. These interactions enable open ended exploration through play leading to learning by doing.

The term loose parts was introduced by Simon Nicholson (1971) who proposed that: “In any environment, both degree of inventiveness and creativity, and the possibility of discovery, are directly proportional to the number and kind of variables in it”

Nine schools were involved in three local authority areas, Three schools in three rounds. Each school had a Scrapstore PlayPod for 12 weeks. Due to the nature of action research, the process and service provided to schools was improved in each round, as our knowledge and understanding developed. The results of this project were extraordinary and exceeded expectations in several ways. Further in this report you will see these benefits in some detail and throughout there are observations and records which have astounded and surprised all those involved from Headteachers, Staff, Lunchtime Supervisors and Parents. The inescapable conclusion is that given a conducive environment, both human and physical, the capacity and ability of children to play is witnessed as inexhaustible, and that the play itself, if left to the children, is similarly as varied as their imaginations and is therefore unending.